Plan B Forum

A 9-year-old Texas boy was suspended from school after threatening to use his “Hobbit” ring to make another student disappear, his father says.

Officials at Kermit Elementary School in Winkler County, Texas, said Aiden Steward made a terroristic threat when he told another classmate that he could make him vanish using a ring from the fictional Mount Doom from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth legendarium, the boy’s father, Jason Steward, told the New York Daily News.

The principal said threats, real or imagined, to another child’s safety would not be tolerated, Mr. Steward said.

“It sounded unbelievable,” Mr. Steward said, insisting his son “didn’t mean anything by it.”

The Stewards had just watched “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” days earlier.

“Kids act out movies that they see. When I watched Superman as a kid, I went outside and tried to fly,” Mr. Steward told the Daily News. “I assure you my son lacks the magical powers necessary to threaten his friend’s existence.”

Principal Roxanne Greer declined to comment on the 4th grader’s suspension, citing confidentiality policies, according to the Odessa American, which first reported the story.

Mr. Steward said he requested a written explanation from the school as to how his son’s statements constituted a “terroristic threat” and was told the school would put the letter in the mail